The present invention relates to face authentication and recognition and, more particularly, but not exclusively to a system and method for automatic face authentication and recognition, say for security and surveillance purposes.
Currently, two popular applications of face recognition systems are access control and security screening.
Access control systems are used to authenticate the identity of individuals before allowing entry into a secure area. Specifically, the system stores images of personnel authorized to enter the secure area. When entry is attempted, the person's facial image is captured, and compared to facial images of authorized personnel. When a facial image match is detected, entry is granted.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,050,608, to Dobashi, filed on Mar. 7, 2002, entitled “Face image recognition apparatus”, discloses a face image recognition apparatus.
Dobashi's face image recognition apparatus includes a registration information holding section in which a reference feature amount of the face of at least one to-be-recognized person is previously registered. The feature amount of the face is extracted from a face image input via an image input section, by use of a feature amount extracting section.
A recognition section determines the recognition rate between the extracted feature amount and the reference feature amount registered in the registration information holding section. A feature amount adding section additionally registers the feature amount extracted by the feature amount extracting section as a new reference feature amount into the registration information holding section when it is determined that the determined recognition rate is lower than a preset value.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,221,809, to Geng, filed on Dec. 17, 2002, entitled “Face recognition system and method”, discloses a method of automatically recognizing a human face.
The method described by Geng includes developing a three-dimensional model of a face, and generating a number of two-dimensional images based on the three-dimensional model. The generated two-dimensional images are then enrolled in a database and searched against an input image for identifying the face of the input image.
Security screening involves capturing images of people in public places and comparing them to images of persons who are known to pose security risks. One primary example of security screening is its use at airport security checkpoints.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,164,992, to Turk, filed on Nov. 1, 1990, entitled “Face Recognition System”, describes a recognition system for identifying members of an audience.
The system described by Turk includes an imaging system which generates an image of the audience and a selector module for selecting a portion of the generated image. Turk's system further includes a detection means which analyzes the selected image portion to determine whether an image of a person is present, and a recognition module responsive to the detection means for determining whether a detected image of a person identified by the detection means resembles one of a reference set of images of individuals.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/719,792, to Monroe, filed on Nov. 21, 2003, entitled “Method for incorporating facial recognition technology in a multimedia surveillance system”, discloses facial recognition technology integrated into a multimedia surveillance system for enhancing the collection, distribution and management of recognition data, by utilizing the system's cameras, databases, monitor stations, and notification systems.
With the system described by Monroe, at least one camera, ideally an IP camera is provided. This IP camera performs additional processing steps to captured video. Specifically, the captured video is digitized and compressed into a convenient compressed file format, and then sent to a network protocol stack for subsequent conveyance over a local or wide area network. The compressed digital video is transported via Local Area Network (LAN) or Wide Area Network (WAN) to a processor which performs steps of Facial Separation, Facial Signature Generation, and Facial Database Lookup.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/450,581, to Chen et al., filed on Jun. 12, 2006, entitled “Three-dimensional face recognition system and method”, describes a three dimensional (3D) face recognition system.
Chen's system has a first data storing module for storing three dimensional (3D) face model data and two dimensional (2D) face image data, an input unit for inputting 3D face model data and 2D face image data, a signal conversion module for converting analog data of the 3D face model data and 2D face image data to digital data, and a second data storing module for storing the digital data.
Chen's system further includes a micro-processing module for analyzing geometric characteristics of points in the 3D face model data stored in the first and second data storing module to determine feature points of the 3D face model data, and assigning different weight ratios to feature points.
Chen's system further includes a comparison module for comparing the feature points stored in the first and second data storing module. The different geometric characteristics are given different weight ratios, and the comparison module calculates relativity between the feature points to obtain a comparison result.